What is a Favicon? It is a 16×16 pixel image that is shown next to your web page’s title on the tab in browser address bar.
Favicons are usually overlooked, but I think they are a nice touch on a website. I thought that maybe it was just a quirk of mine, but then I read the article “What’s The Point Of Favicons?” by Ray Vellest, and I was glad to find someone shared my enthusiasm for favicons. Ray points out “favicons are very little things, probably the least important bit of a site, but it’s attention to detail that makes a site stand out; and even if it sounds crazy, favicons are very important from a branding point-of-view.”
Favicons aren’t easy to work with because you only get a total of 256 pixels to create a recognizable image. If we take my work headshot and shrink it down to favicon size, this is what you get…
| 100×100 pixels |   |
| 16×16 pixels |   |
And here is how I look in a favicon image editor:
So how do the favicons of the presidential candidates look? (I tried to keep the more recognizable ones at the end)
Marco Rubio
Bernie Sanders
John Kasich
Jim Gilmore (His website doesn’t appear to have a favicon uploaded)
Donald Trump
Ben Carson
Ted Cruz
Jeb Bush
Hillary Clinton
See how the candidates rank in Marty’s Web Presence Presidential Political Poll (MWPPPP), which looks at factors like 404_error pages and 160-character stump speech.
